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As of May 8, 2024, there are 5108 open recommendations that still need to be addressed. 412 of these are priority recommendations, those that we believe warrant priority attention. Learn more about our priority designation on our Recommendations page.

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5041 - 5060 of 5108 Recommendations, including 412 Priority Recommendations

Drinking Water: Unreliable State Data Limit EPA's Ability to Target Enforcement Priorities and Communicate Water Systems' Performance

GAO-11-381
David Trimble
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2 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Recommendation Status
Environmental Protection Agency
Priority Rec.
To improve EPA's ability to oversee the states' implementation of the Safe Drinking Water Act and provide Congress and the public with more complete and accurate information on compliance, the Administrator of EPA should resume data verification audits to routinely evaluate the quality of selected drinking water data on health-based and monitoring violations that the states provide to EPA. These audits should also evaluate the quality of data on the enforcement actions that states and other primacy agencies have taken to correct violations.
Open

EPA partially agreed with our recommendation. As of March 2023, EPA indicated that it continues to work on modernizing its Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) and expects to start transitioning states to the system by the end of 2024. In addition, EPA plans to engage with states as it develops data quality goals for monitoring violations and other information. However, our recommendation was that EPA should resume data verification audits. In March 2022, EPA told us it was not planning to resume the audits due to budgetary constraints. Instead, EPA said it was taking other actions
Environmental Protection Agency To improve EPA's ability to oversee the states' implementation of the Safe Drinking Water Act and provide Congress and the public with more complete and accurate information on compliance, the Administrator of EPA should work with the states to establish a goal, or goals, for the completeness and accuracy of data on monitoring violations. In setting these goals, EPA may want to consider whether certain types of monitoring violations merit specific targets. For example, the agency may decide that a goal for the states to completely and accurately report when required monitoring was not done should differ from a goal for reporting when monitoring was done but not reported on time.
Open

As of July 2023, this recommendation remains open. EPA is modernizing the Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), with several efforts underway. We are conducting additional follow-up with EPA staff to receive an update on the status of these efforts.

Abusive Tax Avoidance Transactions: IRS Needs Better Data to Inform Decisions about Transactions

GAO-11-493
James R. White
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Congress Congress may wish to consider instituting a penalty on non-material advisor promoters for failing to provide investor lists to IRS within a specified time period when requested, comparable to the 20-business-day requirement for material advisors.
Open

As of March 2024, we have not identified legislative action on the three sections (26 U.S.C. ?? 6111, 6112, 6708) since the release of our report in 2011. No bills have been introduced into the current Congress (118th) to amend these sections of the Internal Revenue Code.

Medicaid and CHIP: Reports for Monitoring Children's Health Care Services Need Improvement

GAO-11-293R
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services In light of the need for accurate and complete information on children's access to health services under Medicaid and CHIP, the requirement that states report information to CMS on certain aspects of their Medicaid and CHIP programs, and problems with accuracy and completeness in this state reporting, the Administrator of CMS should work with states to identify additional improvements that could be made to the CMS 416 and CHIP annual reports, including options for reporting on the receipt of services separately for children in managed care and fee-for-service delivery models, while minimizing reporting burden, and for capturing information on the CMS 416 relating to children's receipt of treatment services for which they are referred.
Open – Partially Addressed

In August 2019, CMS stated that the agency's long-term plan is to use the Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS) to analyze information on children's receipt of Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment (EPSDT) services. Starting with the submission of FY 2020 data, the CMS-416 was updated to provide an option for states that meet T-MSIS data quality and completeness criteria to have CMS complete the form on their behalf using T-MSIS data. As of December 2023, CMS officials said that they were still exploring the feasibility of using T-MSIS data to generate

Rural Housing Service: Opportunities Exist to Strengthen Farm Labor Housing Program Management and Oversight

GAO-11-329
A. Nikki Clowers
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Department of Agriculture To better ensure that requirements for tenant eligibility are met across the FLH portfolio, the Secretary of Agriculture should direct the Administrator of RHS to require its loan servicers to use the Systematic Alien Verification and Entitlements (SAVE) program administered by the Department of Homeland Security to verify tenant's residency status during supervisory reviews.
Open

As of February 2024, USDA was taking steps to implement the use of electronic third-party verifications systems to establish tenant legal residency and income documentation. Officials reported that the draft rule incorporating the usage of Systematic Alien Verification and Entitlements (SAVE) program for verifying tenant residency is under departmental clearance review and they expect the rule to be finalized in late 2024. Officials reported they will not make any changes to its guidance to loans servicers on verifying tenants' residency until the rule is finalized. In addition, officials

2011 Tax Filing: IRS Dealt with Challenges to Date but Needs Additional Authority to Verify Compliance

GAO-11-481
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Congress To ensure that IRS can adequately enforce certain tax provisions, Congress may wish to consider providing IRS with MEA to use tax return information from previous years to ensure that taxpayers do not improperly claim credits or deductions in excess of lifetime limits where applicable.
Open

As of March 2024, Congress had not provided IRS math error authority in these circumstances. GAO maintains that providing IRS with math error authority to identify and correct ineligible claims for credits or deductions in excess of lifetime limits would enable IRS to correct obvious noncompliance and would be less intrusive and burdensome to taxpayers than audits.

End-Stage Renal Disease: CMS Should Assess Adequacy of Payment When Certain Oral Drugs Are Included and Ensure Availability of Quality Monitoring Data

GAO-11-365
James Cosgrove
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services To help ensure that Medicare beneficiaries have access to high-quality dialysis care, the Administrator of CMS should assess the extent to which the bundled payment for dialysis care will be sufficient to cover an efficient dialysis organization's costs to provide such care when the bundled payment expands to cover oral-only ESRD drugs. The Administrator should conduct this assessment before implementing this expanded bundled payment.
Open

CMS, as required by law, delayed until 2025 the expansion of the bundled payment for dialysis care to cover oral-only ESRD drugs. Because the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 requires CMS to use the most recent year of data available to implement this payment change, CMS has been unable to implement our recommendation as of June 2023. We will update the status of this recommendation upon receipt of additional information from CMS.

Opportunities to Reduce Potential Duplication in Government Programs, Save Tax Dollars, and Enhance Revenue

GAO-11-318SP
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4 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Department of the Interior The Department of the Interior should implement GAO's recommendations from prior reports addressing a variety of oil and gas measurement factors.
Open – Partially Addressed

As of March 2024, Interior implemented 24 of 26 recommendations that GAO made in reports from March 2010 and April 2015 for improving Interior's oversight, polices, and practices for oil and gas measurement. Interior continues efforts to update oil and gas measurement and site security regulations. Interior plans to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking in December 2024, with a final rule expected in March 2025.
Office of Management and Budget Until the federal government has implemented effective processes to determine the full extent to which improper payments occur and to reasonably ensure that appropriate actions are taken across entities and programs to effectively recover and reduce improper payments, the federal government will not have reasonable assurance that the use of taxpayer funds is adequately safeguarded.
Open – Partially Addressed

As of January 2024, the federal government had taken some steps to estimate improper payments for susceptible programs and to recover overpayments. However, consistent with GAO's March 2011 suggested action, further efforts are needed to help ensure that all risk-susceptible programs are included, estimates are reliable, and improper payments are reduced. Executive agencies are required by law to determine whether any of their programs and activities are susceptible to significant improper payments and annually estimate and report the amount of improper payments in any susceptible programs and
Department of Defense Opportunities exist for the Department of Defense to optimize business operations and systems.
Open – Partially Addressed

DOD has taken steps to optimize its business operations and systems. For example, DOD has established tiered oversight processes for managing its portfolio of business systems. However, as of September 2023, updates to DOD's guidance and policy for its business systems are still needed. For example, in September 2023 DOD stated that they plan to issue updates to the investment management guidance that will contain requirements, procedures, and criteria to enable the DOD Chief Information Officer (CIO) to more effectively manage the department's portfolio of defense business systems. In
Congress Congress could consider giving the IRS the authority to collect the information that the Social Security Administration (SSA) needs on government pension income to administer the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision accurately and fairly.
Open

No legislative action identified. As of March 2024, Congress had not yet passed legislation to give IRS authority to collect information that would provide SSA with accurate information on noncovered pension payments, as GAO suggested in November 2007. In prior years, the President's Budget submission proposed legislation that would provide seed money to states for them to develop systems that will enable them to provide information on their noncovered pension payments to SSA so that the agency can apply the Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision. The proposal would

2010 Census: Key Efforts to Include Hard-to-Count Populations Went Generally as Planned; Improvements Could Make the Efforts More Effective for Next Census

GAO-11-45
Robert N. Goldenkoff
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2 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Recommendation Status
Department of Commerce To help improve the effectiveness of the Bureau's outreach and enumeration efforts, especially for HTC populations, should they be used again in the 2020 Census, and improve the Bureau's marketing/outreach efforts, the Secretary of Commerce should require the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs as well as the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau to develop mechanisms to increase coordination and communication between the partnership and local census office staff. Possible actions include offering more opportunities for joint training, establishing protocols for coordination, and more effectively leveraging the partnership contact database to better align partnership outreach activities with local needs.
Open

The Department generally agreed with this recommendation. In 2011, the Bureau reported on the agency's assessment of the partnership program. In September 2014, the Bureau's Path to the 2020 Census identified the Partnership Program as one of the best methods for communicating the importance of response and states its intent to map out details about the Partnership Program in early 2016. As of March 2018, Bureau officials said they were developing coordination mechanisms between partnership and Area Census Office staff for the 2020 Census. For example, the Bureau updated a form it had used
Department of Commerce
Priority Rec.
To help improve the effectiveness of the Bureau's outreach and enumeration efforts, especially for HTC populations, should they be used again in the 2020 Census, and to improve some of the Bureau's key efforts to enumerate HTC populations, the Secretary of Commerce should require the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs as well as the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau to evaluate the extent to which each special enumeration activity improved the count of traditionally hard-to-enumerate groups and use the results to help inform decision making on spending for these programs in 2020.
Open

The Department generally agreed with this recommendation. In 2012, the Bureau reported on assessments of many 2010 special enumeration activities such as the Service-Based Enumeration and the Be Counted/Questionnaire Assistance Center Programs. These assessments revealed the number of persons counted and spending for the special enumeration activities. Separately, the Bureau issued results of the 2010 Census Coverage Measurement Program that described census coverage of various traditionally undercounted populations generally, although these did not attribute coverage to specific enumeration

Servicemember Reemployment: Agencies Are Generally Timely in Processing Redress Complaints, but Improvements Needed in Maintaining Data and Reporting

GAO-11-55
Yvonne Jones
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4 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Congress To help ensure that Congress is fully apprised of efforts to resolve a case, Congress may wish to consider amending USERRA to require DOJ and OSC to report on additional time taken to resolve a matter after they decline representation.
Open

As of March 7, 2024, no legislative action has been taken.
Congress To help ensure that that servicemembers who file complaints are adequately being informed of their USERRA complaint process rights in accordance with VBIA 2008, Congress may wish to consider amending USERRA to require DOL to report on the extent to which it is notifying complainants of their USERRA complaint process rights within 5 days of filing a complaint.
Open

As of March 7, 2024, no legislative action has been taken.
Congress To help ensure that DOJ handles state cases as expediently as private employer cases, Congress may wish to consider amending USERRA to specifically require DOJ to adhere to the same 60-day deadline for state employer matters that they must adhere to for matters against private employers.
Open

As of March 7, 2024, no legislative action has been taken.
Congress To help ensure that servicemembers in state employer cases are kept apprised of the status of DOJ's decision making without potentially compromising DOJ's ability to successfully bring suit against state employers, Congress may wish to consider amending USERRA to require DOJ to notify these servicemembers of the status of DOJ's efforts.
Open

As of March 7, 2024, no legislative action has been taken.

Food and Drug Administration: Overseas Offices Have Taken Steps to Help Ensure Import Safety, but More Long-Term Planning Is Needed

GAO-10-960
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Food and Drug Administration To help ensure that FDA's overseas offices are able to fully meet their mission of helping to ensure the safety of imported products, the Commissioner of FDA should ensure, as it completes its strategic planning process for the overseas offices, that it develops a set of performance goals and measures that can be used to demonstrate overseas office contributions to long-term outcomes related to the regulation of imported products and that overseas office activities are coordinated with the centers and Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA).
Open – Partially Addressed

In a June 2022 written response, FDA described multiple strategic planning efforts it was undertaking to demonstrate the contributions of the overseas offices to long-term outcomes of imported products and coordination with ORA. Of these, FDA provided supporting documentation that it has developed performance measures related to long-term outcomes of inspections conducted by overseas office staff, which it implemented as of March 2023. Specifically, these measures included targets and assessed the contribution of the offices toward helping FDA follow up on prior inspections that identified

Tax Gap: IRS Can Improve Efforts to Address Tax Evasion by Networks of Businesses and Related Entities

GAO-10-968
James R. White
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Internal Revenue Service The Commissioner of Internal Revenue should establish an IRS-wide strategy with goals, which may need to be developed incrementally, to coordinate and plan ongoing and future efforts to identify and pursue network tax evasion. The strategy should include: (1) assessing the effectiveness of network analysis tools, such as yK-1; (2) determining the feasibility and benefits of increasing access to existing IRS data, such as scanning additional data from Schedule K-1, or collecting additional data for use in its network analysis efforts; (3) putting the development of analytical techniques and tools that focus on networks as the unit of analysis, such as GraphQuery, on a specific time schedule; and (4) deciding how network efforts will be managed across IRS, such as whether a core program team or management group is needed.
Open – Partially Addressed

As of March 2024, IRS had not created a documented, agency-wide strategy to manage network noncompliance efforts; however, IRS has developed elements of the strategy, as GAO recommended in September 2010. IRS has made and continues to focus on making iterative improvements to its network analysis tools. Although these improvements are not contained within an IRS-wide strategy, they relate to assessing effectiveness. IRS has also taken steps to assess its most predominantly used network analysis tool. As part of an annual survey, IRS asked users of this tool about its effectiveness and to

Mortgage Financing: Opportunities to Enhance Management and Oversight of FHA's Financial Condition

GAO-10-827R
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Recommendation Status
Congress To strengthen accountability and transparency in FHA's management of the Fund, Congress may wish to consider clarifying (1) the definition of the Fund's capital ratio--specifically, whether the denominator of the ratio was intended to be the amortized insurance-in-force; (2) the definition of the phrase "established target subsidy rate" used in HERA; and (3) the nature and extent of information that FHA should be reporting on subsidy rates pursuant to HERA, recognizing that subsidy rates are generally only reestimated once a year under current budget processes.
Open

As of March 2024, Congress had not acted on this matter for consideration.
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